A Key To Another World
by Deric Wadleigh
Summary: Xedric and Xexas are brothers in a world where strange things are occurring. Follow their adventure as they discover the origin of their world and it's fate.


_A Key to Another World_

Xedric ran faster as the figure behind him ran faster. He turned quickly, hoping to throw off his Pursuer. He dived behind some trashcans in the alley and scrunched himself down as small as possible, hoping to hide.

"Come on out, I just want to talk." The man said slyly, walking down the alley slowly.

As the man passed where Xedric was hiding, Xedric struck out with a foot and slammed the man's kneecaps together. He crumpled to the ground and Xedric ran past him.

The man laughed manically and jumped up.

"That wasn't very nice." The man said, following Xedric out of the alley.

As he turned the corner, Xedric was standing there, ready, with a large metal pipe in his hands. He was a short and skinny boy, about 15 years old with spiky, unruly, red hair. His bright amber eyes stood out in the darkness.

"You just aren't a nice person." The man said, dodging a swing of the pipe, "I just want to talk."

"Why would I want to talk to you?" Xedric said, swinging at him again.

"Fine then, talk to my friends." The man said snapping his fingers.

Suddenly a number of shadows appeared on the ground around Xedric. They were short creatures of pure darkness with bright yellow eyes. They moved sporadically around him, waiting for something.

Xedric looked around, afraid. He lunged out with the pipe and struck one in the head. The pipe simply passed through it and its head melded back together.

All at once, they jumped at him. Grabbing his legs and arms, the ground underneath them turned dark. Struggle as he might, they slowly pulled him down into it. As his head was sinking into the darkness, he heard the maniacal laughter again.

He screamed but no voice would come from his throat.

Xedric screamed and sat up. His body was slick with sweat and the thin blanket on his bed was crumpled up on the floor next to him. He was in a small bedroom with nearly nothing in it, as if there was any room for anything else. There was a single poster on one wall depicting a singer with round red glasses, long black hair, and numerous tattoos covering his body. The other wall had a dresser against it. Across from Xedric, the door pushed open and the light flicked on.

"Hey Xed, you all right?" The man said, walking in. He was tall, green eyes and hair like Xedrics.

"Yea, just a bad dream, go back to bed Xexas." Xedric said, rubbing his eyes.

Xexas was Xedric's twenty two year old brother. They had lived together for as long as Xedric could remember. His mother had died almost twelve years ago, leaving a ten year old Xexas to care for his baby brother.

"Nah, it's almost six. I might as well get ready for work early." Xexas said, scratching his head. His hair was as unruly as Xedrics and just as red.

Xexas worked at a grocery store a few blocks from their house. The owner of the store, Joshua, had practically taken in the boys when their mother had died. He always made sure they had food and a roof over their heads.

They lived in a small apartment right now. Xexas made just enough money working for Joshua to pay the rent and buy them some necessities, Joshua usually gave them all the food from the store that they needed.

Xexas yawned loudly and walked towards the small kitchen. The apartment had a small kitchen that was also the living room, a hallway, a bathroom, and two very tiny bedrooms. It was just big enough for them; though they had nothing else to put in the house.

"It looks like we're out of oatmeal; you'll have to go without breakfast today." Xexas said, opening the nearly empty pantry. He opened the fridge; it just had a few apples, an orange and a half gallon of milk.

"So what else is new?" Xedric said, scratching his head as he sat down in one of the two rickety kitchen chairs they had rescued from the dumpster out back.

"Good point, I'll ask Josh if we can have a few of the expired or opened things at the store." Xexas said, walking back to his room. He came back out a minute later with a pair of torn blue jeans and a green shirt that had his name stitched on the front.

"I'll walk down there with you." Xedric said, getting up. He went to his room and put on an old pair of jeans and a worn t-shirt.

"School doesn't start till seven though." Xexas said, taking one of the threadbare jackets from the hook on the back of the door.

"Yea, but the school is warm." Xedric said, taking the other jacket.

They went out the door and down the stairs.

"Ah, damn it's cold out here." Xexas said, stepping out onto the worn sidewalk.

They lived in the slums of Alterra, a large city where it never seemed to warm up.

"You say that every day." Xedric said, shuffling after him.

"Well, I wouldn't if it would just warm up." Xexas complained, stuffing his hands in his jeans.

"Just walk faster." Xedric said, speeding up.

"Xexas, you're early." Joshua said as they walked through the door into the staff room.

"Yea, no breakfast mixed with a freaking freezing apartment makes me move quick." Xexas said, hanging his jacket on a hook.

"Well, that won't do. Xedric, take something on your way out." Joshua said, getting up.

"Sweet." Xedric said, walking into the empty store. He grabbed a small box of crackers and started munching on them.

As he walked back to the staff room, Xexas and Joshua were talking; he hid next to the frame and listened. Usually when they were talking alone it was important.

"I still think you guys need to move into the second floor here." Joshua said, pushing his chair in.

"I told you already, we don't need that many handouts. The food is one thing but we have an apartment already." Xexas said, following him out.

"I've seen that little place you guys are staying in, the storage closet in the back is better." Joshua argued.

"It's perfectly fine." Xexas said quickly.

"It's missing a window and the heater doesn't work." Joshua pointed out.

"It's just minor complications." Xexas said flatly.

"Your brother is freezing to death there." Joshua said, smacking him upside the head.

"I will not take anymore free handouts from you, you're doing bad enough as it is." Xexas said stubbornly.

"How about I take sixty percent of your pay and you can live upstairs. While living here, you'll never be late for work and I'll let you take anything you want from the store. That way I make more headway from paying you less and since the store down the street crumpled, my business has almost doubled." Joshua said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Sixty percent, that takes me from 1200 to 400 a month, ok." Xexas said, walking out of the staff room.

Xedric quickly turned and made as if he was walking towards the staff room.

"Hey Xedric, what do you think of moving into the second floor of the store? The heater up there works." Xexas said, ruffling Xedric's hair.

The man in the cloak was chasing him again.

Xedric ran and ran. He passed the alley where he hid last time. Sweeping past, he picked up the metal pipe again and kept running.

"Come on, I just want to talk." The man said again.

Xedric kept and then he saw it, a shallow alley out of the way. He quickly slid into it and waited a moment.

"You have no idea the power that is within you. If you would just join me I could show you." The man tried to reason.

As he walked by, Xedric struck out with the pipe and caught the man upside the head. He crumpled quickly and Xedric kept attacking. When he stopped, the man's head was indiscernible from the blood on the pavement.

Xedric sighed and breathed heavily. The pipe fell from his hands and he stumbled forward. A bright light shone ahead of him. He stumbled towards it and tranquility washed over him.

"Finally, your path has been chosen." A voice whispered in his ear.

Xedric sat up and looked around. The room he was in is different from normal. His room was bigger, roof taller, and there was more in it.

He sat up and got out of bed. For the first time in years, he woke up and he wasn't hungry. It was Saturday and he had to get their meager belongings from the apartment.

"Hey Xedric, wake up. I'm going to be working until seven so you're on your own emptying the apartment." Xexas yelled, knocking on his door. Xedric heard him continue down the hall.

"Ok, whatever." Xedric said, slipping on some pants.

He threw on a shirt as he was walking out the door. The hallway he was in was small and had two other doors in it. At the end of the hallway was a set of stairs going down to the staff room.

Xexas was waiting in the staff room when he got down there.

"So here's the plan; don't bother with the chairs or dressers; just get our stuff over here. Joshua has some extra ones upstairs we can use. I mean, you don't want any of that crap anyway do you?" Xexas explained as they walked out through the store.

"Yea, I really want to continue getting splinters in my ass during dinner, be back soon." Xedric said, grabbing an apple on his way out the door.

It's a surprisingly long walk from the apartment to the store when you're moving everything by hand. It was nearing seven when he was headed back for the last load; Xexas was busy unloading a delivery truck last time Xedric saw him.

The sun had fallen on his last trip back; Xedric had his jacket wrapped tightly around him. As he passed a small storefront he suddenly realized how familiar this was. There was a whoosh of air behind him and Xedric flung around to see.

There was a portal of dark shadow glowing darkly there. It suddenly fluctuated and a figure stepped out of it.

It was the man in black.

"Hello there Xedric, we need to talk." The man said, holding out his gloved hand.

Xedric immediately ran the other way; he knew exactly what was happening.

"Why do you run every time?" The man said, sprinting after him.

Xedric looked around for the alley that he passed every time he had that dream. It was a few hundred yards in front of him, he ran faster.

"Get back here, it's not worth it." The man said, running after him.

Xedric lunged out towards the trashcan that had the pipe hidden behind it.

It wasn't there.

Xedric reached around wildly and quickly searched around for another weapon.

There was a long thin piece of wood against the wall a short way ahead of him. He ran after it.

"This is pointless." The man yelled.

Xedric reached out and grabbed the stick; he kept running.

"Get away." Xedric panted, trying to run harder.

He had already run past his apartment and the shallow piece out of the wall was ahead of him. He quickly stepped into it.

"Xedric, where did you go?" The man said, stepping forward carefully.

As the man stepped past Xedric he lunged out like he did in his dreams.

"There you are." The man said, blocking the stick. He ripped it from Xedric and threw it behind him.

Xedric kicked out wildly towards the man. He dodged the kicks and laughed manically.

"What do you want?" Xedric said, trying to attack the man further.

"You, we want you." The man said, grabbing Xedric's fist as he tried to punch again.

Xedric screamed in anger and tried to struggle out of his grip, but it didn't work.

"Help, please somebody help me." Xedric screamed, as the man dragged him out of his hiding spot.

"Scream all you want, in a few seconds nobody will be able to hear you." The man said holding out his other hand.

A dark portal formed from nothing and he started to pull Xedric towards it.

"Get off him." A voice yelled loudly and someone with red hair slammed into the man.

Xexas punched the man with unbridled fury and anger at the sight of his brother being attacked.

"Don't ever touch my brother again, you all right Xedric." Xexas said, getting off the man.

"Yea, I'm fine. Let's get out of here." Xedric said, looking over at Xexas.

"Good." Xexas said, turning away from the man.

"Look out." Xedric yelled as the man got up again; he rolled out of the way.

He grabbed Xexas' arms and tore them around his back. Something dark formed around his hands and they were bound there.

"You will not interfere." The man said, kicking Xexas' legs out from under him.

Xedric looked around for anything he could use. Leaning up against the wall was a piece of pipe, the pipe he had used countless times to attack this man in his dreams.

He grabbed it and swung out at the man. But when he swung it, it was no longer a heavy pipe.

Held in his hand was a glistening blade; it wasn't a normal blade though. The blade was rounded and bright silver. Near the end of the blade was a crown; it made the weapon look like a large key. Dangling from the pummel was a long chain. At the end of it was a shape that looked like three intertwined circles, two small ones on a single large one.

"What the?" Xedric said, looking at the silver blade in his hand.

"Yes, that's what we want. The Keyblade!" The man said triumphantly.

"Stay back." Xedric yelled, lunged out with the Keyblade again. It struck the man in the midsection and he crumpled over.

"We will have you." The man coughed, snapping his fingers.

Just like his dreams, ten shadows appeared around him. Except this time was different, Xedric didn't hesitate to attack.

He lunged out with a powerful swing and when the Keyblade smashed the shadow, it didn't pass through it. The Keyblade made contact and the small shadow disappeared in a cloud of dark tendrils.

Something red and shining floated away from where it was destroyed.

The other shadows attacked him and were cut down just as quickly. Nine more shining objects floated away from the dissipated shadows.

Xedric walked over to the man, he made no attempt to fight again.

"Get out and take your shadows with you." Xedric said, holding the Keyblade up to his throat.

The man backed up to a wall. Pressing his hands against it, a shadow portal appeared and he backed into it.

Xedric groaned loudly when he disappeared. A noise behind him made him jump around, ready to fight again.

"Damn it Xedric, help me." Xexas said, struggling on the ground.

Xedric put an arm under Xexas' arm and lifted him to his feet.

"Get these things off me." Xexas said, struggling against the bindings.

Xedric looked at his hands; they were still bound with what looked like tangible shadows.

"Pull your hands as far apart as you can." Xedric said, raising the Keyblade.

He swung at the shadows and sliced through them easily.

"Thanks, what is that thing?" Xexas said, rubbing his wrists.

"I honestly don't know." Xedric said raising the Keyblade up. All of a sudden the Keyblade disappeared in a small pop and a flash of light.

"And it's gone again, that's got to be the weirdest thing I've ever seen." Xexas said, starting to walk back towards their apartment.

Xedric was lying on his new bed on the second floor of the Grocery store. It was late and the store was closed when they got back, luckily enough Xexas had a key.

"The Keyblade?" Xedric muttered looking at his hand. He made a few slices through the air with his hand as if he was slashing it.

By now Xedric had passed the idea that this was a dream. By now he would have woken up or been killed in some way.

"Hey Xedric, are you doing alright?" Xexas said as he walked into his room.

"Yea, it just seems so weird that my dreams became reality." Xedric said, sitting up.

"I know, that was weird, I'm feeling as if I'll wake up at any moment. So anyway, where did you get that weapon?" Xexas said, sitting down next to him.

"I honestly don't know. One moment I was holding a pipe, the next I was holding the Keyblade." Xedric said, swinging his hand around again.

"The Keyblade?" Xexas said, scratching his chin.

"That's what the man in black called it." Xedric explained.

"Can you make it appear again?" Xedric asked.

"I don't know." Xedric said opening and closing his hand.

"Maybe there's a secret word." Xexas suggested.

"Ha, that's hilarious. Appear, show, come to me, Keyblade, Alakazam, SHAZAM!" Xedric said laughing loudly.

"That's not what I meant, but ok." Xexas laughed with him.

Xedric fell into thought about the fight. He remembered the anger, the rage, and the fiery passion that had enthralled him when he attacked the man in black, when he swung the Keyblade in a silver blur of metal, how right the Keyblade felt in his hands.

He looked back up and held out his hand, knowing that it would appear this time.

Xexas jumped as the Keyblade appeared with a blink of light in his hand. It was a glistening blade of about four feet. The handle was round and black; it had a large gold-yellow square guard wrapped around it. At the end of the long rounded blade was a crown shape, the teeth to a large key.

Now that he looked at it, the Keyblade seemed more of a club than anything else. With the rounded blade and square intricate teeth, it didn't have a lot of cutting edge.

"It's a strange weapon." Xexas said, looking at the Keyblade.

"Here, take it." Xedric said, handing it to Xexas.

He took it in his hand and ran his other hand down the blade. All of the sudden it disappeared from Xexas' hand with a blink of light. Almost instantly it was clasped back in Xedric's hand.

"Kind of picky isn't it." Xexas said with a laugh.

"I still wonder why it came to me." Xedric said, standing up.

"Well, you were in danger and needed a weapon. Maybe you were just lucky." Xexas said.

Xedric swung the Keyblade around and made as if he was attack another enemy.

"How did you learn to use it so quickly?" Xexas said, jumping out of the way.

"When I was a kid and you were gone for many hours of the day I would spend my time imagining that I was attacking the man who killed mom. Day in and day out, I practiced and practiced, hoping that I would meet him one day. Of course now I know it was a useless waste of time." Xedric said, moving the Keyblade in a flurry of metal around him.

"Whoa, watch it!" Xexas said, ducking as the Keyblade whistled over his head.

"Sorry." Xedric said, lowering the Keyblade.

"You know what I wonder, what's the point of the keychain on the bottom?" Xexas said kneeling down to look at the symbol of intertwined circles. It was a single large circle with two small ones placed on the edge of it.

He reached down and unclipped the keychain. The moment the Keychain came free of the key Xedric grunted loudly and the Keyblade hit the floor.

"Damn that's heavy. I think the keychain is what makes the Keyblade so light and powerful." Xedric said, trying to swing the Keyblade. It was heavy and he could hardly get it off the ground, let alone swing it.

"Weird." Xexas said, reattaching it. The Keyblade became light and swift again.

Xedric was walking down the street, returning from school. It had been an uneventful and boring day at Saturday detention. His head hurt from all the times the teacher slapped him to wake him up.

As he walked down the street he heard a scream. In the slums of this town that wasn't very odd, except this time, he scream had come from a girl a block ahead of him.

There were shadows come up from the ground and closing in on her, they quickly surrounded her and she screamed louder. There was a flash and one of them burst into shadowy tendrils, the girl looked puzzled.

"Somebody help me." She said backing up against a wall.

"Get off her." Xedric yelled, running at the shadows. The Keyblade appeared in his hand and he swung at the shadows as they started to jump at the girl.

Xedric leapt sideways and slashed again, a shadow disappeared in a puff of darkness, another shining object floated away. He had no time to dwell on what it was.

He jumped out of the way as another shadow lunged at him. He swept out and hit it as it passed by. Jumping forward, he slammed one of them into the air and slashed it aside; it disappeared in a cloud of black.

Xedric grunted as one of them leapt on his back. He spun around fast and slashed out. It had worked. Just as it came off his back he caught it square in the face and it disappeared.

Panting loudly, Xedric crouched, looking around for anymore.

"Thank you, what were those things?" The girl said getting up.

"I don't know; all I know is that this can kill them." Xedric said, holding up the Keyblade. He made it disappear with a bright blink of light. He looked at the girl and realized that it was a girl from his class. She had long bright blue hair that fell to her lower back.

"What is that?" She said as the Keyblade disappeared.

"It's called the Keyblade, I don't know exactly what it is, but I know that I can summon it whenever I want." Xedric said, making it appear again.

"Weird, do you think those things will attack me again." She asked tentatively.

Xedric saw an opportunity and took it.

"I don't know but I better walk you home just in case, my name's Xedric." Xedric said, holding out his hand, the Keyblade had disappeared again.

"I'm Alissa, thank you for doing this." Alissa said, shaking his hand.

"That's my apartments up there." Alissa said, pointing to some average looking four story apartments.

"Well, I'm sorry about the trouble. I don't know why they attacked you but I'll make sure it doesn't happen again." Xedric said, stepping up onto the curb.

"Hey, what's that?" Alissa shrieked, pointing at a shadow behind him.

It rose from the ground, as did five others, and started to walk forward.

"Get inside; I'll take care of these." Xedric said, swinging his hand down to his side. The Keyblade shone in his hand, standing out against the darkness.

He spent no time waiting for the shadows to attack. Lunging as fast as he can, Xedric slashed out viciously and cut the closest shadow down.

He swung around angrily and cut down two more shadows with a deadly quickness. In his quickness to kill, Xedric was careless.

A shadow clawed out behind him and sliced his calf open with its claws.

"God damn it!" Xedric yelled, falling to one knee. He kept swinging the Keyblade at the remaining shadows as blood blossomed on the back of his leg.

"Xedric!" Alissa shrieked from the top of the stairs.

"Alissa, get inside. I don't want you hurt." Xedric said, struggling to his feet. He cut down another shadow, there weren't many remaining.

Another shadow jumped at him and Xedric jumped back as hard as he could. To Xedric's shock, he flew over the shadows and landed on the ground ten feet behind the shadows.

He stared around, amazed at how far he flew in a single jump.

"Now die!" Xedric yelled. He jumped low and fast as far forward as he could. Swinging the Keyblade as wide and fast as he could, Xedric cut down the rest of the shadows. He stopped near the stairs, panting hard. There was a burst of dark smoke behind him as the shadows exploded. He turned back and stared at the shining objects floating off into the sky.

"Xedric, are you ok?" Alissa said, running down the stairs towards him.

"Yea, it's just a small cut." Xedric said, looking at his leg. It was a half-inch deep laceration that went the width of his calf. It bled profusely and soaked his pant leg.

"But it won't stop bleeding." Alissa said, looking at his leg.

"It's not that bad." Xedric said, tearing the rest of the pant leg off.

He took off his loose shirt and tied the black cloth tightly around the wound.

"I'll be fine." Xedric said, standing up shakily.

"Are you sure, I mean, that leg can't be feeling good." Alissa said, standing back up.

"I'll make it home." Xedric said, starting to walk away, "I believe those shadows are attracted to me, I have to go."

"I'm going with you." Alissa said, catching him as he stumbled.

"Won't your parents be worried?" Xedric said, turning around.

"I don't have any parents; please just let me come with you." Alissa said, clasping her hands together behind her back.

"No, I don't want you hurt again." Xedric said firmly.

"Having me with you would be the best way for you to protect me wouldn't it?" Alissa pointed out.

"Fine, let's go." Xedric said, limping away.

"You live at a grocery store?" Alissa said as they walked through the front.

"No, I live above the grocery store." Xedric said, locking the door behind him.

"Xedric you're finally home. I thought that you got lost. Who's this?" Xexas said, walking down the isle towards them.

"Xexas, this is Alissa. Alissa this is my brother Xexas." Xedric introduced.

"Hi, first time Xedric has ever brought a girl home." Xexas said mockingly.

"This isn't the time, Xexas, it's happening more often. She was attacked when I got near and they attacked when I tried to drop her off. I think it's best if she stays here tonight." Xedric said sternly.

"No kidding? Well, what do you want to do?" Xexas said, following them to the back of the store.

"I don't know I still don't get why the Keyblade came to me." Xedric said as he opened the door to the stairs.

"You're definitely skilled enough with it." Xexas said, climbing the stairs behind them.

"Well boys, I'm tired. Where do I sleep?" Alissa said, stopping in front of the closest door.

"You can have the bed in my room; I'll sleep in Xexas' Room." Xedric said, opening the door.

"Thanks." Alissa said, walking into his room. She sat down tentatively on the old bedspread.

As they were walking to Xexas' room, Xexas saw Xedric's leg.

"What the hell did you do to your leg?" He said staring at the bloody shirt tied around it.

"One of those little bastards got the better of me." Xedric said, walking into the bathroom. He stepped over the edge of the bathtub and sat down on it.

He carefully untied the bloody shirt. As he pulled it away, the shirt pulled the clotted blood free and it started to bleed again.

"Damn, that looks bad." Xexas said, turning on the water.

"What's that for." Xedric said, indicating the hot water filling the tub.

"We have to clean that cut and dress it properly." Xexas said, taking a first aid kit from the cabinet.

"Since when have we had anything except a roll of duct tape?" Xedric said looking at the needle Xexas pulled from the box.

"Josh gave it to me when we moved in. This might hurt." Xexas warned, wiping the cut clean with a washcloth. Xedric gasped loudly as the hot cloth dug into his wound.

Xexas pierced his skin with the curved needle and started to sew it shut.

"Damn that hurts." Xedric said as Xexas made another stitch.

"So what exactly happened?" Xexas said, slicing the needle through faster. As he reached the end, he cut the surgical string and tied it.

"First of all, ouch, second, I was attacked again. When I was on my way home the shadows appeared near me and attacked Alissa. Of course I didn't hesitate to leap in and attack. The first group wasn't a problem; I cut them down in seconds. After that I offered to walk Alissa home and that's when it turned nasty. Just as we reached her house they attacked again, that's when this happened." Xedric said, looking at the stitched up cut, it was starting to clot again.

"So that's it. You killed them, brought Alissa here and hoped you could protect her." Xexas said, putting a piece of gauze on the stitching. He taped it there with a piece of duct tape.

"Well, there is one other thing. After the little bastards cut my leg open I tried to jump over them and escape." Xedric said, stepping out of the tub.

"And you did what…cut the rest of them down?" Xexas said, stuffing the first aid kit back in the cabinet.

"No it's the weirdest thing; I jumped and flew like ten feet away." Xedric said, sitting down in a chair in Xexas' room.

"So your telling me when they slashed open your leg they gave you super powers?" Xexas mocked.

"No, I think it's another power of the Keyblade. The keychain doesn't make the Keyblade light, I think, it makes me stronger and faster." Xedric said, scratching his chin.

"Could be, we should check it out in the morning. But for now get some sleep." Xexas advised, lying down on his bed.

"Alissa, do you want breakfast?" Xedric said, knocking on the door to his bedroom.

It was Sunday and the grocery store was closed.

There was a loud crash, a shriek and Alissa opened the door slightly.

"Uh, sure I'll be out in a few minutes." Alissa said her hair was smoking slightly.

"Hey Alissa, why is your hair on fire?" Xedric said, pinching a small bit of her long blue hair that was smoking.

"What do you mean; I don't know what you're talking about." Alissa said, hurriedly closing the door.

Xedric turned the handle again and tried the door, she was leaning against it.

"Alissa, I probably won't care what you did, just let me in." Xedric said, pushing on the door harder.

"Promise you won't be mad." Alissa asked quietly.

"I don't care, there's nothing you could have done that would be that bad." Xedric reasoned, stepping back from the door.

"Ok, just don't kill me." Alissa said, turning the door knob.

The door opened and Alissa was standing there, her clothes were slightly burnt.

"How did you light something on fire, the only thing in there is a dresser and a bed." Xedric said, walking past her.

He stopped dead in his tracks and looked around. The entire room was covered in burns and there was just a pile of burnt wood and ash where his dresser used to be. The entire room looked as if somebody set off a bomb inside of it.

"Please don't kill me, it wasn't my fault." Alissa said quietly.

"I only have one thing to ask: How?" Xedric said, dumbfounded.

"You didn't see it but when those shadows attacked me, I did something that killed a few of them before you showed up." Alissa said, looking at her toes.

"What, did you blow fire or something?" Xedric said, exasperated.

"Um, that's not far from it." Alissa said, showing him the cuffs of her shirt. They were gone from the elbow down and the edges were charred.

"Just show me." Xedric said, stepping back.

She held up her hand and a small ball of fire appeared in it. It held stationary for a minute then jumped from her hand and hit the floor. It exploded there and left a small piece of wood burning.

"Good god." Xedric yelled, smacking at the fire with a shirt he picked up from the ground. After extinguishing the fire, he turned around and looked around the room again.

"I'm so sorry." Alissa said again, "I had a nightmare last night and when I woke up in the dark I freaked, I couldn't control it."

"It was cheap stuff anyway, Alissa I think we should figure out how you can control this." Xedric said, patting her shoulder.

"I don't know." Alissa said, clasping her hands behind her.

"Listen, these shadows have been attacking me since I got this," Xedric said, the Keyblade flashed in his hands, "And I don't think it's going to stop soon so I think if you can defend yourself in anyway you should use it."

"Hey Xedric, I smelled something…" Xexas said, stepping into the room. He stared, open mouthed, around the room. His eyes fell upon Alissa and looked at her charred sleeves.

"Don't get angry at her, it's not her fault." Xedric said, stepping in front of his brother.

"What are the chances that the first girl you bring home is a pyromaniac?" Xexas laughed.

"I'm not a pyromaniac, its magic." Alissa said, walking around Xedric.

"Great, more weirdness, speaking of weird, Xedric you need to show me those acrobatics you were talking about." Xexas said, backing up slightly.

"Ah, ok, let's go down to the street." Xedric said, making the Keyblade disappear with a blink.

The street was nearly empty; the three of them were standing out in the middle of it.

"Now, without the Keyblade I can't do much more than this." Xedric said, jumping about a foot off the ground, "But with the Keyblade I can do much more."

The Keyblade flashed in his hand and he crouched slowly.

All in one swift motion, he jumped upward as hard as he could. He landed hard on the front of the grocery store ten feet above. Alissa gasped and Xexas just stared. Xedric jumped again and launched over the fifteen foot gap and caught the ledge of a window on the apartment across the street. He climbed atop it and jumped vertically. He flew above the edge of the apartment roof, twenty feet above the ground.

"What do you think about that?" Xedric said from the top of the apartment roof.

"Don't fall!" Xexas laughed, staring up at him.

"Please be careful." Alissa said, looking away.

"What's the fun in that?" Xedric said, leaping from the building.

He flew straight down at the pavement, Alissa shrieked. At the last second, Xedric rolled forward onto the ground and jumped up, as if this was simply a gymnastics act.

Stopping just short of Alissa and Xexas, he stood up straight and said, "Well, that was fun."

Alissa walked up to him and slapped him in the face.

"Don't ever scare me like that." Alissa said, stepping back,

Xedric rubbed his face and then burst into laughter, "Well, what can you do?"

"I don't think we should do this in the middle of the street." Alissa said, looking around.

"We could use the docking bay out back." Xexas offered,

Again, they were standing in an empty spot, except this time Alissa stood in front of the two brothers.

"Ok, here I go." Alissa said, rolling up what was left of her sleeves.

She held her hands close together in front of her and after a second the space in between her hands rippled. A fire burst into life there and grew to touch the flesh on either side of it. The look on her face brightened as the fire stayed where it was supposed to be.

But then it went wrong, the fire crackled and shot from her hands. If flew directly at the brothers.

"Shit!" Xexas yelled, diving out of the way.

"Good god woman!" Xedric yelled, ripping his hands up in front of him. The Keyblade flashed in his hand and the fire made contact. The space around the Keyblade rippled and the fire was absorbed and disappeared.

"See why I don't want to do this, I can't control it." Alissa said, bowing her head. Her long blue hair fell over her shoulders and covered her face. Even though it was burnt, it still fell to her waist.

"Don't worry, you'll get it." Xedric said, walking forward.

"Xedric, look out." Xexas yelled.

Xedric spun around, there was a flare of darkness and something appeared. It stood about seven feet tall and its stomach hung out a foot in front of him. A small white hat atop his head marked where its small head was. It banged its massive chest a few times and then stood at the ready.

"It's something from the darkness." Xedric said, launching himself at it. The Keyblade flared in his hand and he swung at the massive creature. He bounced harmlessly off its massive chest.

"Xedric, are you alright?" Alissa said, helping him on his feet.

"Yea, damn thing's invincible." Xedric yelled, blocking a punch from the giant.

"No, I think it's just well protected." Xexas said, jumping back,

"Alissa, I need your help." Xedric said, swinging the Keyblade at it. It bounced off repetitively.

"No, I don't want to hurt you." Alissa said, stepping back.

"Alissa, listen to him." Xexas said, continuing to back up,

"No, I won't." Alissa refused.

"Alissa!" Xedric said, falling to one knee. He was holding both ends of the Keyblade and the giant was pounding on it.

"Xedric move." Alissa said; she held her hands together and fire began to appear.

She directed it at the giant and let it go. The fire caught it full in the chest and it was thrown back a few feet.

"That's it!" Xedric yelled, lunging at the creature again. He bounced up its chest and slammed the Keyblade down towards its head.

The creature's head collapsed inward and it exploded into a cloud of darkness; Xedric fell into the shadows and was gone from view for a second. Again, a red shining object flew away from the darkness.

"Xedric, that was amazing." Alissa said, running forward.

"We're not done yet." Xedric said as the shadows cleared.

Suddenly shadows appeared in the air above them and five creatures appeared. They looked like red cones with small eyes looking out from underneath their hats.

"Leave us alone." Xedric yelled, lunging at them. He slashed at them and they scattered.

He landed hard on the other side of the alleyway and spun around.

"Watch out." Alissa said, fire generating in her hand.

It fired up and hit the red creature. The creature seemed completely unfazed.

"It didn't do anything, try something else." Xedric said, jumping at the creatures again. He flew at one and it floated out of the way. The creature launched some fire at Xedric and hit him square in the back.

"I don't know if I can do anything else." Alissa said, stepping back.

"God damn it that hurts." Xedric yelled, stripping off his burning jacket.

Suddenly one of the creatures near him was hit with something icy and it exploded into shadows.

"You were right, I can use other magic." Alissa said as more ice started to appear above her hand.

Xedric leapt again and caught one of the red creatures, it burst into shadows and another red object flew away.

Alissa threw more ice at the creatures and they were quickly dispatched.

"Alissa, that was amazing." Xexas said, stepping forward.

"This is all so strange, before yesterday I was just a normal student. Now I can use fire and ice magic." Alissa said, making some ice appear in her hands.

"So, are you having fun yet Xedric." A voice said from behind him.

Xedric knew the voice at once and spun around, the man in black stood before him.

"You, this is your entire fault. Ever since you came here the darkness won't leave me alone." Xedric said, lunging at the man. The Keyblade whistled through empty air.

Suddenly the man in black was standing behind Alissa.

"And such a pretty sidekick you have found." The man said, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"Get away from her." Xedric yelled, jumping again.

"No you don't..." The man said. A long silver blade flashed in front of Alissa's throat.

"What do you want?" Xexas asked.

"Why should I tell you? All you need to know is to just keep fighting, keep releasing those hearts." The man said. He moved the blade threateningly when Xedric started to step forward.

"I just want to know one thing, why me? Why did it have to be me?" Xedric said, looking up at the man.

"The Keyblade chose you and not anyone else. Anyway, what I really came here for is to give your brother this; we can't have him dying either. You may both serve us yet…" The man in black said, stepping back from Alissa. He held out his hand a long blade materialized in it.

He set it on the ground and stepped back.

"This world's heart will be ours." The man said, stepping into a portal of darkness.

"Stop!" Xedric yelled, jumping as fast as he could. He flew right through at the portal and it disappeared right as he was an inch from it.

"The darkness doesn't suit you Xedric, stay in the light." A voice said inside Xedric's head.

"What was that?" Xedric said, looking around.

"I didn't here anything." Xexas said, crouching near the sword on the ground.

The sword seemed strange, even though it looked exactly like a normal two-handed three foot blade. It had a simple silver hilt with a leather wrapped handle.

"I don't know about these." Alissa said, looking down at it.

"It can't hurt to try it." Xexas said, picking it up. Nothing happened.

"Um, Xexas?" Xedric said, following him inside the store.

They headed through the store towards the front door. Xexas stopped near the front and looked down at his sword.

"No time to stare at your sword." Xedric said, hearing a scream out front.

They ran out front and saw immediately why somebody screamed. There was a gigantic black heartless smashing through the buildings. It was pure black and had a large hole in its chest.

"I don't think we can kill this one." Alissa said, looking up at it. It stood nearly thirty feet tall.

"It's always worth a shot, you two stay here." Xedric said, running towards it. The Keyblade flashed behind him and leapt for the top of a store on his left.

"Not a chance, I can keep up now or so I hope." Xexas said to himself, running after Xedric. The blade seemed to feed him power as well.

Xexas jumped as hard as he could and flew just as high as Xedric, he landed next to him.

"You think I was going to let you have all the fun." Xexas said, he stood right next to Xedric. The brothers' bright red hair stood out like a beacon in the darkness that was spreading across the town.

"Am I just supposed to stand here?" Alissa said from the street, "Not a chance, if they can, so can I."

She started running down the road and jumped. Alissa landed about a foot I front of where she started.

"Fine, I'll just stay on the ground." She huffed, running along side the building.

They had leapt from building to building until they were on one near the shadow.

"Well, are you ready brother?" Xedric said, looking up at the giant Heartless.

"You may be, but I don't think I am…." Xexas said, looking up as well.

Together, they jumped at the giant Heartless as it smashed their building over.

"Die!" Xedric yelled, slashing the Keyblade at its face. It cut through the shadows and the dark flesh came back together, unharmed.

"It's producing heartless every second." Xexas said, looking at the heartless spawning on the ground.

Xedric stopped for a moment and looked down. There were people running in every direction and the ones that the heartless caught faded into darkness. Out of that darkness raised a shining red object, it flashed and was consumed by darkness. A heartless appeared around it.

Xedric suddenly realized what the shining red objects were, they were hearts. The hearts were released from their bodies when Heartless killed somebody. Those hearts combined with the darkness to create more heartless.

And the Keyblade released those hearts from the Heartless.

"Xedric, what are you doing, move!" Xexas' voice snapped him back to reality.

"They're hearts." Xedric yelled.

"What?"

"The shining red objects, they're hearts." Xedric yelled; pointing at a heart that floated away from a Heartless Xexas had just killed. The new sword was apparently capable of destroying Heartless like the Keyblade was.

"Hearts, how is that possible, hearts are organs not souls." Xexas yelled, slicing another heartless in twain.

"I don't know but that's what they are." Xedric yelled, slashing incessantly at the giant Heartless. They darkness always just fixed itself where ever he slashed it.

"You need some help up there?" Xexas said from the top of a building near him.

Xedric looked down and at that moment that giant Heartless realized that he was up on his shoulder. The dark giant smacked Xedric off and he slammed into the side of a building.

"You bastard." Xexas yelled, jumping at the giant Heartless.

He drove the sword into the monster's head and knocked it over by shear force.

"Watch out!" Xexas yelled, landing on the ledge next to Xedric. He grabbed Xedric and leapt out of the way, the giant Heartless' arm fell on the building.

"You need to be more careful." Xexas said, landing with a clank. He set Xedric down on the sidewalk.

"Damn that bastard hurt, holy shit." Xedric said, looking at the giant Heartless lying on the ground.

"Yea, I don't think he's dead yet though." Xexas said, helping him up.

"No shit." Xedric said, looking at the Heartless' arm move.

"You need a little help boys?" Alissa said, running up to them.

"I don't think we can even kill this thing with magic." Xedric said, staring at the Heartless. It looked down at them from three stories up.

"I think it's unhappy with you Xexas." Xedric laughed, running the other direction.

The giant Heartless turned away and kept smashing through the buildings, determined to get to something.

"What do you think it's searching for?" Alissa said, stopping.

"Do you think it has something to do with the man in black? He mentioned something about the 'Heart of This World." Xedric said, scratching his chin.

"Nonsense, there's no way a world can have a heart." Xexas said, starting off towards the giant Heartless.

"Well, look at our life and what has happened. Now tell me again if anything can be nonsense." Xedric said, running after him.

"Good point."

The giant Heartless rampaged across town for another hour before stopping. It had stopped before the 'Giant Lock'. It was a giant lock about twenty feet tall in the center of downtown and had been made by an unknown sculptor over fifty years ago.

Heartless converged on the sculpture and Xedric ran towards it.

"You think it was sent here to destroy The Lock?" Xexas laughed, watching the giant Heartless grab both sides of the sculpture. It easily ripped it from the ground and beneath it was left a huge hole. The Heartless that were left swarmed down the hole.

Xedric, Xexas and Alissa cut a path through the Heartless and forced their way down. The Heartless seemed completely blind to the three humans among them. They just kept pushing on.

"Don't bother attacking them, they aren't attacking us." Alissa said, clasping her hands behind her back.

They carefully made their way down the destroyed hole, intent on finding out what the Heartless were so intent on that they didn't bother with the three. They walked for, what seemed like, hours.

The cave expanded outward into a massive cavern. At the end of the cavern was a massive silver door, glowing in the center of that door was a keyhole.

"What is that?" Xexas said, staring up at the massive door.

The Heartless swarmed around it and were pouring into the five foot keyhole.

"It's the Heart of The World, the only thing that could distract the Heartless this much." Xedric said, watching the light from the keyhole flicker, "We must stop them."

The picked up the pace and ran towards the massive door, killing Heartless as they went. Xedric ran as fast as he could, swinging the Keyblade in a silver blur. He left masses of burst shadows and released hearts in his wake.

"We must stop them." Xexas yelled, slicing out with his blade. It speared and sliced heartless with ease.

Alissa was silent but her magic spoke for her. Fire and Ice shot outward in every direction, frying or freezing dozens of Heartless. Above them a storm of released hearts were slowly disappearing.

The Keyhole flashed brightly and then it faded out.

"No, they killed it." Xedric said. All of the Heartless stopped dead.

The world around them started to darken, the ground turned to shadow and the sky turned blood red.

"What's happening?" Alissa shrieked they were sinking into the darkness below them.

"Be calm, the Keyblade will be your guide." the voice sounded inside Xedric's head again.

"Everyone get near me." Xedric said, reaching out for Alissa.

Xexas was near him and had grabbed his shoulder with in a few seconds. The darkness was like a thick swamp that was getting deeper.

"Help me, I can't move." Alissa said; she was still far behind him.

Xedric fought his way though the ever increasing darkness in a fight to get to Alissa.

"Xedric!" Alissa shrieked as her head sank below the darkness.

"Alissa, no!" Xedric yelled, struggling harder.

As the darkness overcame his head he felt as if he was being drown, Xexas' hand on his shoulder loosened and fell away.

Xedric tried to yell for Xexas but his mouth didn't make any noise. The darkness surrounded him, choking him. The darkness pierced him and began to saturate his soul, the pain was more excruciating than anything he had every experienced. Xedric freaked out and tried to escape the darkness in anyway possible.

Suddenly the voice echoed through the darkness, "Let the Keyblade guide you."

'The Keyblade?" Xedric thought. He willed it to appear and suddenly there was a bright flash of light. The Keyblade glimmered in the darkness and cast out all the shadows around him. The ground below him was pure darkness and was made solid by the light of the Keyblade.

Xedric held the Keyblade high over his head, casting its bright light far around him. Xexas was lying on the ground a few feet away, curled up against the darkness.

"Xexas." Xedric said, crouching next to him. He grabbed his shoulder and shook him.

"No, Get away from me, stay away." Xexas yelled; flailing out like a child would after a bad dream.

"Xexas, its Xedric, get up." Xedric said, putting his hand under Xexas' shoulders.

"Where are we?" Xexas said Xedric helped him sit up.

"I couldn't tell you." Xedric said, helping Xexas to his feet.

"Where's the light coming from?" Xexas said, looking up.

"The Keyblade, such a handy tool." A voice called out of the darkness.

"Who's there?" Xedric said, dropping the Keyblade into fighting position.

"Ah shit, where is my sword?" Xexas said, looking at his feet.

"What is from the darkness will return to it." The voice called again.

"We have to find a way out of here." Xexas said, looking around rapidly.

"What do you suppose we do? Even the ground is made of shadows." Xedric said, stomping his foot.

"I don't know, you're the one who woke me up." Xexas said, scratching his bright red hair.

"Well, lets just walk then, standing here isn't helping anything." Xedric said, stepping forward cautiously, the darkness held when it was brightened by the Keyblade.

They walked for what seemed like hours, the scenery never changed. It was always just darkness.

"This is pointless." Xedric bellowed, throwing the Keyblade away as far as he could.

In a second the Keyblade flashed and appeared back in Xedric's hand.

"Why do you give up so easily, maybe the Keyblade chose the wrong person?" The man echoed out of the darkness again.

"Where is Alissa?" Xedric yelled at the blackness.

"I assure you she is quite safe in the darkness and that is where she'll stay." The man said, laughing.

"Fine, I'll bring her out of the darkness." Xedric yelled. He held the Keyblade up as high as he could. The light coming from the Keyblade brightened to a blinding radiance.

"God damn." Xexas cursed, hiding his eyes.

Xedric was immune to the light of the Keyblade but it was still incessantly bright to look at.

It all happened at once; the darkness cracked like a sheet of glass and the entire area was filled with a flaring brilliance.

Xedric awoke with a start; his head was groggy as if he had slept for a long time. Looking over he saw Xexas passed out across from him. He gasped and opened his hand; something sharp had been clasped there.

"What the hell happened?" Xedric grumbled, rubbing his eyes. He stumbled to his feet and kicked Xexas lightly in the side.

"Huh, what?" Xexas mumbled, looking around drearily.

"Come on…it's all over." Xedric said, helping his brother up.

"So it was real, the last thing I remember was you holding up the Keyblade and suddenly the entire world was so bright. I think I passed out." Xexas said, rubbing his eyes.

"So, where do you think we are?" Xedric said. He remembered the sharp pain in his hand and looked down. On the ground was a small colorful object.

He reached down and picked it up, it was red and blue. It was a medallion that had two distinct sides that circled around each other. One was a fireball and the other was a ball of ice, coming off both of them were small flames or pieces of ice. A few of the ice spikes were covered in blood.

Xedric looked down at his hand and found four small spots that were bleeding.

"Where did you get that?" Xexas said, looking at the medallion.

"I don't know, but it has something to do with Alissa." Xedric said, holding it up.

"It almost looks like a keychain." Xexas said, looking at the loop that was exactly between the fire and ice.

"I'll inspect it later." Xedric said, walking to the entrance to the alley. He slipped the trinket into his pocket.

The city outside the alley was large and well lit. The streets were lightly populated and the people that were walking by were well dressed.

"Let's go." Xedric said, walking out onto the sidewalk.

"I don't like this place." Xexas said, following him quickly.

"Well then let's hurry." Xedric said.

They started jogging down the road, everybody they passed were staring at them. They ran past a man in a grey suit with a silver badge on his chest.

"What are you running for kid, you did something didn't you." The man said, running out after him.

Xedric slowed to a stop and the policeman grabbed his shoulder roughly.

"I didn't do anything, I was just running." Xedric said, jerking out of his grip.

"You know the law; everybody above the plate needs clearance. I would guess that you don't have any." The policeman said, pulling something from his pocket. It was a metal rod that extended out and the man swung it at Xedric.

"Leave me alone!" Xedric said, flashing the Keyblade in front of him. The rod slammed into the Keyblade and Xedric easily parried it.

"We have an incident in sector five." The Policeman yelled into a radio on his wrist.

A voice came back, "Rodger that, sending backup."

"Let's get out of here." Xexas said, continuing to run.

There was a sewer drain up ahead and Xedric pointed to it.

"Got it!" Xexas said, running to it.

He pulled the cover back and they jumped into it.

The ladder seemed to go down forever. As it began to get brighter, the ladder tunnel opened into a massive area. Sprawled out around them was a massive dark city.

"Keep climbing." Xedric said, as Xexas stopped below him.

The climbed down to a metal scaffolding that was attached to a massive stone pillar that was at least a quarter mile across.

"Stop right there." A policeman called from above.

"Keep moving Xexas." Xedric said, pushing him towards a massive staircase that switch-backed all the way down to a small platform.

They ran all the way down the stairs until they reached a small platform that had a large cage on the side of it. The two brothers climbed into the metal cage and Xedric hit a large green button. The cage lurched and started to fall very fast. As they were nearing the ground, a break applied itself to the cable and the cage slowed until it touched down softly next to the massive pillar.

As they stepped out and looked up they saw that the plate that the above city was on was a mile above them and it was at least ten miles across.

"Damn, one would think those pillars would crumble." Xexas whistled.

"Do not worry, they haven't crumbled in the time they've been there, they won't crumble any time soon." A soft voice said behind them.

They swung around fast and Xedric held out the Keyblade in front of him defensively.

"Don't worry; I'm not here to fight you." The woman said. She was wearing a worn light pink dress and a dark pink jacket. She held a basket of flowers in her hands.

"Good, do you know somewhere we could hide?" Xedric said, looking at the cage zip back up to pick up the policemen.

"Yes, come with me." The lady said, walking away. They area they were in was run down and everybody they saw were dressed just as badly as them. The city was fairly dark from the massive plate above them; the only light was from cheap lights that hung on every building.

They followed her through winding paths and twisting alleys. They even climbed through a few pipes at one point.

"Here we go." She said, stopping in front of a small building. On the wall was a small sign that read '7Th Heaven'

Inside the building wasn't much better than outside. It was full of tables and chairs with a single arcade machine on the east wall.

"Aeris, who did you bring back now." A woman behind the bar said as they walked up.

"These two need somewhere to hide." Aeris said, putting the basket on the stool next to her.

"What happened this time?" The woman said, clearly annoyed.

"They were above the plate and escaped down through the shaft on the 7th plate pillar." Aeris said.

"Good god, how did you two get up there, the cage is never left down on the ground." The woman said, aghast.

"It's not our fault! Something happened at our city and it was consumed by darkness. We fought our way out of the darkness and woke up in an alley up there." Xedric said, sitting down at the bar.

"Ok, you're just making shit up, what was it really? Were you looking to steal something?" The woman said, throwing a couple glasses on the counter.

"Tifa, they aren't lying. I found them coming down in the cage with policeman coming after them." Aeris said in their defense.

"Fine Aeris, I know you don't lie so I'll trust them for now." Tifa said, filling the glasses with a dark drink.

"Look, we live in a massive metropolis called Alterra and one day something happened. These shadow creatures started attacking me and the Keyblade appeared to me." Xedric regaled them with the details of how their world was destroyed by the Heartless.

"That's so horrible." Aeris said, gasping.

"So you're telling me a magical weapon came to you so you could stop the destruction of this massive city that was destroyed anyway. I call bullshit, I know that Materia exist, but a magical sword and creatures made from shadow?" Tifa said angrily.

"You know, you are one annoying bitch." Xedric said, standing up. He knocked the stool to the ground and the few people that were in the bar looked their way.

"Now Xedric, don't let her get to you." Xexas said, moving their glasses over the edge of the bar onto the counter behind it.

"You want proof, here you go." Xedric said, the Keyblade flashed brightly in his hand. He gripped it with both hands and swung it hard at the bar. It smashed into the bar and crushed through the hard wood at least a foot. He let go of it and the Keyblade was stuck tight. A second later it disappeared and reappeared in his waiting hand.

"What the hell was that for? Just because I didn't believe you doesn't mean…" Tifa was cut off when three Policemen walked through the door.

"There they are, stop them." The policemen said, pointing at Xexas and Xedric.

"God damn it, take it outside!" Tifa yelled at the Policemen.

"Do not interfere; this is a Shinra Corp. problem." The policeman said, drawing his large metal rod.

"Please, I'm sure we can work this out." Aeris said, holding her staff in front of her.

"I'll just end it now." Xedric said, lunging at the Policemen.

"Xedric, no!" Xexas yelled. Xedric ignored him.

Xedric slashed out with the Keyblade and smashed one of the Policeman's legs. Both of his legs crumpled with a sickening crunch. He slashed out with a painful quickness. The Keyblade caught a man in the midsection and he crumpled over. Xedric kicked out and caught the last Policeman's legs.

Xedric stood above the man he had just knocked over and held Keyblade to his throat.

"If we meet again I won't be as friendly, now take your wounded and go." Xedric warned, pressing the dull end of the Keyblade to his throat.

"You won't get away with this, we will return in force." The policeman said, helping the other man to his feet. Together they carried out the last man whose legs were dangling at odd angles below him.

"Good god, the only other person I've seen fight like that was Cloud." Tifa said, flabbergasted.

"Now how about we start over, I'm Xedric" Xedric said, picking his stool back up, "I'll fix your bar if you want."

The fight seemed to have worked his anger out.

"Ok, I'm Tifa." Tifa said, holding out her hand.

He shook it and looked over at Xexas.

"Hey, we could take a look at that medallion now." Xexas said happily.

"Medallion?" Aeris said, raising her eyebrows.

"Yea, when I woke up from the darkness this was clutched in my hand." Xedric said, pulling out the Fire and Ice medallion, he also showed them the bloody holes in his right hand.

"Interesting, it's a yin-yang of fire and ice." Aeris said, flipping over the medallion in her hand.

"I think it has to do with a girl who was back at my old town. Soon after I got the Keyblade, we met and I found out that she could use magic to defeat the heartless." Xedric explained.

"That's not that surprising; we use Materia here to do stuff like that all the time." Tifa said, removing a small blue glass orb from her pocket.

"I think he means that she can use it without anything, she has an innate ability to use fire and ice." Aeris explained, handing the medallion back.

"Anyway, when the Heartless were attacking the heart of our world, the world was being consumed by darkness. Xexas was near me so we were touching when the darkness enveloped our world, but Alissa was further away so she ended up somewhere else." Xedric said, laying his head down on his arms.

"That explains the star the other night." Aeris said, snapping her fingers.

"You didn't go out of the city by yourself again, did you?" Tifa scolded.

"You know I can take care of myself. Anyway when I was out there last night I watched a star flash bright and then go out. I didn't think anything of it until now." Aeris said, patting Xedric on the back.

"I've got it, Xedric, get up." Xexas said, tapping him on the side of his head.

"What is it?" Xedric said, wiping his eyes.

"It's a keychain!"

"What?" Xedric said confused.

"The Keyblade, it's a keychain." Xexas said, holding the medallion up. It had a loop atop it between the fire and ice.

"Let's see if you're right." Xedric said, the Keyblade flashed in his hands and he laid it on the counter. He pulled off the small silver Keychain that was already on there; the counter creaked as the weight on it nearly quadrupled. He carefully put the keychain in his pocket and attached the Fire and Ice medallion to it.

The space around the Keyblade rippled wildly. Light from the Keychain spread up the chain and onto the Keyblade and the chain turned to thin blue string. The handle turned into a solid blue shape that looked like rolling waves. The blade widened and split down the center. One side turned into burning flames and the other side turned to cold, sharp ice.

Xedric picked up the Keyblade; it felt freezing and burning hot the same time. Somewhere among it came another feeling, the Comforting warmth of love. As he held the new Keyblade all of his worries were washed away and he felt at peace. He realized what the handle guard was; it was Alissa's rippling locks of beautiful blue hair. The blade was made of her two elements, fire and ice.

"Amazing, how did you do that?" Tifa said, staring at the new Keyblade.

"It's the keychain; it was always the keychain." Xedric said, holding the Keyblade up.

"Well, it doesn't look like a key now." Xexas laughed.

"I think I'll call it Storm's Eye; it was Alissa's memory saved us from the darkness and it brought me to the light." Xedric said, swinging it out, it swung considerably faster than before but the strength behind the swings seemed to have diminished.

"She was beautiful wasn't she?" Aeris said quietly.

"So beautiful." Xedric muttered. The Keyblade disappeared from his hand as he looked down at the ground.

"You know she might be somewhere else in the city. If she was a few feet from you when you disappeared then it's possible she's just across town." Tifa suggested, rubbing over the broken part of the bar lovingly.

"Here, I can fix that, kind of." Xexas said. He grabbed both of the broken pieces that hung down below the hole. He pulled up hard and with a crackling of wood the two inch thick bar snapped back into place. There were a few splinters sticking up here and there and there were three deep cracks in it.

"A bit of glue and some stain, it'll be good for now." Tifa said, scraping off the splinters with a knife.

"Do you want to start searching around Sector Seven Slums?" Aeris said, gesturing towards the door.

"So how many sectors are there?" Xexas said.

"Eight, both above and below the plate; be sure to stay out of Sector Zero though. That's the Shinra Capital." Tifa explained.

Suddenly the door burst open and two people burst in. The person in front was a massive black man; he nearly hit his head on the door frame as he ducked under it. His right hand was a weirdest thing of all; there was no hand on it, only a large silver cylinder that had six barrels coming off it.

"Meeting downstairs, our mission was successful." The large black man said, walking over to the arcade machine.

Tifa followed them to the arcade machine. They all crunched around it and the large man pressed a button underneath the machine. The floor clinked and started to sink. No sooner had the large mans head sunk below the floor that a panel slid out from the wall to cover the hole.

"What the heck?" Xedric said, looking over at the empty spot.

"It's their secret hide out." Aeris said, sitting down.

"Hide out for what?" Xexas said, sitting down on a bar stool.

"The group AVALANCH, Barret, the man with the gun-arm, created it." Aeris said, straightening her dress.

"AVALANCH, what does it do?" Xexas inquired.

"They're fighting the Shinra Corporation. Shinra is destroying the planet with their Mako generators." Aeris said.

"Mako generator, what is that?" Xedric said, leaning on the bar.

"Mako is a compressed energy made from the Lifestream that course through the planet. The Lifestream gives life to everything that is alive. The Mako energy they're making from it is draining the Lifestream. Everything that is alive, me, you, plants, and animals, all have piece of that Lifestream. When we die that piece goes back to the Lifestream, it's a perfect circle. But when Mako energy is sucked from the Lifestream, it can't return, eventually this will drain the Lifestream completely." Aeris explained.

"So Shinra is killing the planet for money?" Xedric said, raising an eyebrow.

"Essentially, yes. If we don't stop this abomination, then the planet will wither and die sometime in the future." Aeris said with a whimper.

"There must be something we can do! If I help you end Shinra, I could find Alissa while we're running around the city." Xedric said, jumping up.

"Ok, let's go." Aeris said she walked over to the empty panel.

She stomped on it four times. The panel slid out of the way and the arcade machine came up again. They grouped around it and Aeris pressed the button underneath it.

They sank down a floor and the room opened up into a basement. In the basement was a large table and there was a large computer on the wall.

"Welcome to AVALANCH." Aeris said, stepping off.

"You said three thousand Gil!" A blonde man said he had a massive sword slung over his back.

"No, I said one thousand." The large man named Barret yelled.

"I want three thousand!" The blonde man yelled, yanking his massive sword in front of him.

The sword was four feet long and a foot wide. The weapon had no hilt; it was just a massive blade with a steel handle. He wielded it with practiced ease.

"Don't mess with me boy, I can end you." Barret said, holding up his gun-arm.

"Boys, please don't fight!" Tifa yelled, coming out of the bathroom.

"She has a point; we're all here to defeat Shinra." Aeris said, stepping in between the two.

"I don't know, maybe an ex-Shinra might not want that." Barret said, pointing at the blonde man.

"Cloud is not a traitor; he probably hates Shinra the most out of all of us." Tifa said, pushing Barret back.

"Just pay me my money." The Blonde man named Cloud said. He was wearing a full black suit with a single armored shoulder on his left side. His blonde hair stuck out in all directions. The most distinctive feature about him were his eyes, they were such a piercing blue-green that they seemed to be looking into your soul.

"Who are they?" Barret said, pointing at Xexas and Xedric.

"We're going to help you take out Shinra." Xedric said, walking forward.

"How do we know they aren't Shinra spies?" Barret said, stepping closer to him.

"We aren't even from with world." Xedric said defiantly.

"What do you mean not from this world?" Cloud said, putting his massive sword away.

"Our world was destroyed and the darkness carried us here." Xexas said.

"What's in it for you?" Barret said, lowering his gun-arm.

"I have lost something very near and dear to me, by helping you I will get a free tour around this city. Then I might be able to find her." Xedric said, stepping back from Barret.

"I have heard his story and I know he's not lying." Aeris said, putting her hand on Barret's arm. He looked down at her, completely trusting.

"Fine, you can join us for the next attack." Barret said, turning around.

"We're taking out reactor five in a few days." Tifa said, sitting down at the table.

"I better get paid six thousand for this." Cloud said his armor and sword clanked loudly as he sat down.

"Please Cloud, just do this for me." Tifa said.

"Fine, but I still need some money." Cloud said.

"So, Kid, can you fight?" Barret asked Xedric.

"I could probably kill anything we would have to." Xedric said, sitting down between Cloud and Aeris.

"No, I asked if you could fight, not kill." Barret said.

"Yes I can fight; do you want to test me?" Xedric said arrogantly.

"Do you use hand-to-hand like Tifa or what, because I don't see any weapons." Barret said, looking at Xedric.

"I wield a unique weapon, The Keyblade." Xedric said, he scooted his chair back and stood up. The Keyblade flashed in his hand. The Keyblade that appeared was Storms Eye, not the regular key.

"That's interesting." Barret said, looking at the Keyblade.

"It's used to defeat the Heartless, creatures of shadow, which only exist to consume hearts." Xedric said, making the Keyblade disappear.

"Hmm, I haven't really seen anything like that." Aeris said, tapping her chin.

"I sure hope you haven't. If they were here that means they're trying to find the heart of this world. That's the Heartless' ultimate goal." Xexas said with a shudder.

"That's how your world was destroyed." Cloud said quietly.

"Yes, how did you know?" Xedric said, astonished.

"If Heartless consume hearts and your world had a heart, that's the only thing that could've happened to it." Cloud said, blowing some of his hair out of his face.

"Ok, it's getting late. We all need some sleep if we're going to pull this job." Barret said, getting up.

"You can sleep on the floor in here." Tifa said, pulling a few blankets from the closet.

It was the first time Xedric had slept since the horror of his world being destroyed.

There was a loud crash and Xedric awoke with a jerk.

"Wha's that?" Xexas said groggily.

"Sorry boys, I didn't mean to let that fall." Tifa said, picking up whatever fell.

Xedric groaned and rolled over. The clock on the wall said it was around seven in the morning.

"What was that?" Xexas grumbled.

"I dropped a box of cans, this may be the AVALANCE headquarters but it's still my bar and I need storage room." Tifa said, stepping on the arcade elevator.

"We might as well get up, an early start always helps." Xedric said, standing up.

A heavy blanket fell off him and he felt cold. Looking down, he tried to locate his pants.

"Where did our clothes go?" Xedric said, looking around the room.

The elevator clinked and started to descend. Aeris was standing on it, holding an armful of clothes.

"Tifa said you were up, I didn't mean for you to get up yet. Your clothes were so horrible that even people here in the slums would notice, so I went and bought you some clothes." Aeris said, setting the pile of clothes down on the table.

"You didn't have to do that, we're used being poor." Xexas said getting up he was in his patched boxers as well.

"Didn't you two have parents in your old town?" Aeris said, sifting the clothes into two piles.

"No, our father abandoned us and our mother died when Xed was only a baby." Xexas said, looking at the clothes.

"Interesting clothes, I've never seen anything like them." Xedric said, holding up a pair of pants.

The pants were dark red and stopped a few inches after his knee cap, they were very baggy. They had a heavy chain running through the belt loops. The shirt was a normal white t-shirt, but the jacket was odd. It was very light and very stiff, just long enough to barely touch his waist and the sleeves slid down to his elbows. It was also red and had a heavy silver pauldron on his right shoulder. There was a pair of laced shoes that matched the jacket and pants.

"Try them on, they weren't easy to find." Aeris said, clapping her hands together.

"You really didn't have to do this." Xedric said, slipping on the bright red pants. They fit his waist exactly when the chain was clipped together. The shirt and shoes were exactly the same, a perfect fit. The jacket was a little uncomfortable to get on but once he got it over both shoulders it fit better than he could've imagined.

"Dude, that looks awesome." Xexas said, stepping back to look at Xedric's new threads.

Xexas quickly donned his own clothes, they fit just as good. His clothes were similar to Xedric's except they were black and grey. His jacket was different, its sleeves went all the way to his wrists and he had large silver pauldron on his left shoulder instead of his right. His pants also differed in a few ways; they went all the way to his ankles and had a few more cargo pockets than Xedrics.

"You two look beautiful." Aeris said, clapping her hands together.

"You have a mirror?" Xexas said, running his hand through his hair.

"It's upstairs in the bathroom." Aeris said, standing next to the arcade machine.

The lift slowly clanked up and when they reached the bar, Tifa gasped and ran over to them.

"They look gorgeous." Tifa whispered to Aeris.

Xexas hurried off to the bathroom to look at himself.

"I just like the jacket, it's versatile." Xedric said, crouching so that his right shoulder was in front of him. The silver pauldron stood out against the white and dark red clothes.

"So where is Cloud and Barret." Xexas said, his hair was spiked up and pushed back in a more radical fashion.

"They're still sleeping; we hadn't planned to wake you guys up for another hour." Tifa said, walking back to the bar.

"So what are we doing today?" Xedric asked, sitting down at the bar.

"We weren't planning to knock out reactor five until tomorrow so you'll just have to find something to do." Aeris said, joining them at the bar.

"Do you guys want breakfast, what'll it be?" Tifa said, looking in the fridge behind the bar.

"Sure, whatever you're cooking." Xexas said, laying his arms on the bar.

"We have: eggs, bacon, sausage, and hash browns." Tifa listed off.

"Good god, I've never had any of that before." Xedric said, lifting his head quickly off the bar.

"What, what do you mean you haven't had any of these." Tifa said, completely astounded.

"We're poor; all we ever had was dry oatmeal or cereal and not good cereal mind you." Xedric said staring at the package of bacon she pulled out of the fridge.

"Really, of course I'm a vegetarian so I don't eat bacon and sausage. Can you just make me some hash browns?" Aeris said, grabbing an apple from the fridge.

"I think the best thing we have ever eaten was that home made dinner with that nice family down the street." Xedric said, scratching the bright red stubble on his chin.

"Nah, I had a dinner with grandma that would have knocked your socks off. Of course you were still a baby when she died." Xexas said, looking at the bacon sizzle in the pan.

"You guys must have had a rough life." Tifa said, cracking an egg on the edge of the pan.

The smell of sausage, bacon, eggs, and hash browns floated around the bar for another ten minutes. Mixed with the happy chatter and laughter between the two girls and the brothers made it a peaceful morning.

"Here you go, the best breakfast you will ever have and not just because you guys haven't had it before!" Tifa said setting plates heaped with sausage, bacon, eggs, and hash browns in front of Xedric and Xexas.

"My god, this looks like a dream." Xedric said, picking up his fork.

They had dug through the plates within another ten minutes.

"Holy crap, that was…" Xexas said, stifling a burp.

"…unexplainable." Xedric said, groaning.

"You make any for us?" Cloud said as he came up the lift. Barret was right behind him.

"Yes of course I did, you two were just late on the uptake.' Tifa said, pushing two plates down the table towards them. One of the plates was piled with an insane amount of food and the other had very little.

"Thanks Tifa." Barret said, picking up the plate that looked like it was about to break under the weight of the food.

"Good god man, why do you need a mountain of food?" Xexas said, staring at him.

"How much do you weigh?" Barret asked, looking at him.

"I don't know, one sixty?" Xexas said, looking up at him.

"I'm three hundred and fifty pounds of muscle, I need food." Barret laughed, pulling up his shirt. A rock hard six-pack was chiseled into his stone-like stomach.

Xedric just sat there, speechless. Barret sat down in a large chair at a table next to the bar.

"Yea, he eats like that every day and never gains a pound." Tifa said, staring blissfully at Barret.

"Hey, Tifa, remove your eyes. Remember, I was married once before." Barret said, snapping with his good hand.

"What, nothing!" Tifa said, looking away from everyone quickly.

A door opened and closed behind the bar and every looked over at it. Nobody was standing there.

"Hey daddy, what's for breakfast?" A little girl said, walking out from behind the bar.

"Hey honey, you can share daddy's breakfast." Barret said, lifting her up onto his lap.

"Who is this?" Xedric said, looking at the little girl.

"This is my beautiful daughter, Marlene Wallace." Barret said, ruffling her hair.

"Daddy!" She laughed, batting his hands away. She quickly straightened her hair.

"So, is there any reason for me to be here today?" Cloud said he had already finished his breakfast.

"We aren't doing the next generator until tomorrow, so, no." Tifa said, sitting down at the table.

"Them I'm leaving." Cloud said, walking away.

As he walked out the door, everyone was staring at him.

As the door closed, everyone looked back at the table except Tifa.

"I wish he wouldn't do that." Tifa said quietly.

Suddenly there was a loud noise outside and something hit the side of the building; the walls rattled.

"Oh come on I haven't even finished breakfast yet." Barret roared, he got up and set Marlene down in his seat.

"Be careful daddy." She said, taking another bite of the eggs.

"Let's go." Tifa said, running towards the door.

"I'm going to stay here with Marlene." Aeris said, sitting down at the table.

"Thank you!" Barret yelled, running out the door. Xedric and Xexas were right behind him.

"You bastard!" Cloud yelled, lunging forward again.

They stepped out there to find Cloud holding his massive sword in front of him.

"What the hell is this thing?" Cloud yelled, lunging at the massive creature again.

Xedric and Xexas knew exactly what it was in an instant. It was a massive heartless. They had only fought one of these before and they had only won because of Alissa's magic.

"Damn, that thing's bigger n' me!" Barret said, holding up his gun-arm. He fired a volley of shots at it; they barely scathed its flesh.

"Its body can't be hurt by physical attacks. Xexas and I have fought something like this before. We need to hit the head or use magic!" Xedric yelled the Storm's Eye appeared in his hand.

He lunged at the massive Heartless and slashed the fiery side of the Keyblade at its head. The Heartless' white cap slashed off and its head was just a black ball with two yellow eyes. Lunging again, he slashed at it with the icy side. The Heartless raised a massive arm and slammed him to the ground before he made contact.

"Xedric, are you all right." Xexas said, rushing over to him. Xedric was motionless.

Xedric was lying on the ground, barely breathing.

"Son of a bitch!" Xexas yelled he ran at the heartless. A Keyblade flashed in his hands. He attacked and was knocked away. When Xexas stopped he looked at his hand in amazement. He was holding a Keyblade. It was longer than Xedric's, with a flat blade made of two intertwining colors, black and red. They started as two different parts of the pummel and weaved there way all the way up to create a key crown at the end of the blade.

"There's more than one?" Xexas said in amazement, he was just staring at the Keyblade

"Wake up son, look out." Barret yelled, pushing Xexas to the ground to avoid a punch. Barret was hit in the side and knocked over. He groaned and quickly jumped back up.

"What does it want?" Cloud said, he jumped forward and tried to slash it. His massive blade bounced off its chest.

"They simply live to devour hearts, is that not enough explanation." Xexas said, jumping to his feet.

He slashed out with the red and black Keyblade, it was quick and powerful. He leapt up the Heartless' chest and held the Keyblade above his head. Shoving down hard, he drove it through the Heartless' head and it exploded into tendrils of shadow.

"Thank god." Tifa said, she stepped towards Xedric, he was still on the ground.

"Here, give him this." Cloud said, he handed Xexas a small bottle. Inside were a few drips of a liquid that looked like swirling fire.

"What is it?" Xexas said, carefully pouring it in Xedric's mouth.

"Essence of Pheonix, it cures many illnesses and injuries." Tifa said.

Xedric groaned and sat up.

"You're all right, thank god." Xexas said, hugging his brother, "Try not to be such an idiot in the future."

"What happened?" Xedric said, standing up. His Keyblade disappeared.

"You lunged at that thing and it threw you a beatin'." Barret said, looking around where the Heartless dissipated from.

"Where did you get that?" Xedric said, pointing at the Red and Black Keyblade in Xexas' hand.

"I don't know, it showed up like yours. When you were knocked out I was so angry at it that I just ran blindly at the Heartless." Xexas said, holding it up.

"It matches you two." Tifa said, looking between Xedric and Xexas.

"It does, I guess that's what I'll call it, Brotherhood." Xexas said, staring at the Keyblade. The Keychain was two crossed swords, one red and one black.

It disappeared with a blink of light.

"The Heartless are here, that means that they are trying to find the heart of this world." Xedric said, walking back in the bar.

They all sat around the table again, Marlene had eaten her fill and Barret sat back down to finish the mountain of cold breakfast.

"So, the world is going to be destroyed if we don't stop these 'Heartless'." Cloud said, his armor rattled loudly as he shifted around.

"Exactly, if they follow the same pattern, over the next few days they will increase in frequency and sheer numbers. When they have gotten enough forces together then they will start searching for the heart of this world. If they find it they will consume it and the world will fade into darkness." Xedric explained.

"Ok, so we destroy the reactor tomorrow and then go looking for the heart of this world?" Barret said skeptically.

"Yes, the Heart will most likely be at an iconic location or be hidden with something strange." Xexas said.

"What about the Northern Cavern? That was created a few thousand years ago and it may go to the center of the world." Aeris suggested.

"Sounds logical, keep an eye on the Heartless; if they start congregating near there then you're correct." Xedric said, standing up.

"Where are you going?" Barret asked, looking up at him.

"For a walk around the town." Xedric said, walking towards the door, Xexas got up and followed him out.

"Do you really think she's here?" Xedric said as the door swung shut behind them.

"I honestly couldn't say." Xexas said, Brotherhood flashed into his hand.

"It's an interesting Keyblade." Xedric mentioned, staring at the intertwined black and red.

"It's strange that it came out of the need to protect my little brother." Xexas said, turning the Keyblade over in his hand. It was a few inches longer than Xedric's but it wasn't anywhere near as fast as his.

"Mine came out of the need to protect myself. Maybe it's a power among the family." Xedric said, making Storm's Eye appear.

"Interesting idea, we'll never be able to test it though. Anyone who would have been in our family is dead." Xexas said, starting to walk.

"Downer, man, downer." Xedric muttered.

They walked all the way across the small sector, looking at what this town was like. Once they had seen the way these people were living, Xedric could understand how Aeris could be so sympathetic towards them.

The people in sector seven lived in horrible lean-to houses or whatever crevices and pipes were dry. There was even a man living behind a broken grate that led to a large drain pipe.

"Man, to be forced from your home every time a storm blows through." Xexas said solemnly at this sight.

"I don't think that's a problem with the plates above here." Xedric said, looking up at where the sun may or may not be.

They continued their tour through this hell of a place. People didn't seem to notice them and the ones that did just looked away as if they had something more important to do. At one time they saw three kids run out from behind a building, chasing a rat with a few slings.

"I wonder what that's about." Xedric said ignorantly.

"Probably dinner." Xexas said with a shudder.

Xedric and Xexas worked their way back to the 7th Heaven over the next hour, hoping that Aeris could soothe their sorrow about the horror of this city. They quickly realized that their life back in their world.

"Life is life; we do our best with what we have." Tifa said, looking back to her dishes.

"Really, that's it. This town looks like hell to us, those that have our world destroyed." Xexas said, unbelieving.

"Shinra's oppression has kept the poor completely poor, kept the rich entirely rich." Barret said looking out the dirty window at the small city around them.

"This is why we're taking them down, now you know our anger." Cloud said, standing up with a rattle of metal. He looked up at the clock and sighed.

"It is getting late; I think I'm going to head home." Aeris said, sighing as cloud did.

"Night." Barret muttered, "Aeris, can you take Marlene to stay at your house?"

Aeris nodded and held her hand out to Marlene, who took it and walked out with her.

"So tomorrow's the day huh?" Deric said quietly.

"Yes, tomorrow we take down reactor five." Cloud said, walking out the door.

Deric mumbled something incoherent and walked over to the lift.

The brothers were awoken a few hours later, long before morning.

"Come on, we're going now!" Barret said, giving both of them a jab with his boot.

"Yea…yea, I'm getting up." Xedric grumbled, rolling onto his chest. He pushed himself up and carefully got to his feet. Every bone in his body ached and his stomach rumbled loudly. None of this was new to him.

"Well this should be fun." Xexas grumbled, sliding his jacket on.

They took the lift upstairs and sat down at the bar.

"It's a cold breakfast today boys, I couldn't get the stove to light." Tifa said setting bowls of cold oatmeal in front of them.

"It's not that bad." Xedric said, digging in.

They ate the breakfast as fast as they could and washed it down with liberal amounts of juice.

"Come on, let's do this." Cloud said, walking out the front door.

"So how are we going to do this?" Xexas said, following Barret out.

"We're going to take the train to the reactor's sector and simply break in." Barret said simply.

Deric stopped, speechless.

"Really, it's that simple?" Xexas said, jabbing Xedric in the side.

"Well, one could hope." Tifa muttered.

"I've got your fake IDs here, you'll need them when we pass the security check on the train." Cloud said, handing them two non-script cards that only had a few lines of code on them.

"You might need this." Tifa said, handing Xedric a small green orb.

"What is it?" Xedric asked, looking it over.

"Materia, you know how to use it right?" Tifa asked.

"Um…Sure I do, of course." Xedric said confidently, of course he had absolutely no idea how.

"Ok, head out and meet at the train station in twenty minutes." Barret said leading the way.

Everyone split up except for Xedric and Xexas who walked directly into the heart of the slums and circled around towards the train station. The entire place was as quiet as the grave, nothing stirred except a dark shadow here or a strange figure there.

Xedric nodded to Xexas and they turned for the train station, which was on the other side, near the pillar. It headed outward and curved around the outer edge of the sector.

Only Barret stood at the train station, he was wearing slightly cleaner clothes and a hat sat on his gun arm to hide it. He had changed after he left the 7th Heaven.

There was a slight jingle in the distance. Cloud jumped down from a nearby building and walked past them, onto the waiting train.

Tifa strolled by casually and got on the train.

"All aboard!" The conductor called.

Barret and the brothers walked onto the train and took some seats spread around the train.

Xexas and Xedric sat by each other for the first fifteen minutes of the ride before the alarm sounded.

"We passed through the security check and the IDs didn't work, we're abandoning the train." Barret told him as he walked passed.

They got up and followed Tifa, Barret and Cloud to the front of their car.

"Please remain in your seats while we check your security cards." The conductor said holding up his hands.

Barret swung his arm up and held his gun to the man's face, the hat fell off.

"How smart is it to talk right now?" Barret said, very intimidating.

"I…I think…I'll…I'll just…go…" The man stuttered, backing into a corner.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Cloud said, pulling the lever on the door.

It swung open and was torn off by the force of the wind.

Cloud was t first out and he was quickly followed by Barret and Xexas.

"Is this…" Xedric was cut off.

"No time, go!" Tifa said, shoving him.

Tifa jumped after him.

Xedric fell, wind ripping at his clothes. He saw Xexas' Keyblade flash into existence a hundred feet to his left, Xexas fell out of sight.

The ground was approaching fast, Xedric, Keyblade in hand; spread his body to fly near a tall building. Pressing against it, Xedric slid down the building to divert his momentum. He leapt to a building a short distance away, changing his vertical momentum into horizontal momentum.

He hit the other building and slid down it. Carefully maintaining and slowing his momentum, Xedric hit the ground and looked around. Tifa hit and rolled near him.

"Move!" Tifa hurried him.

They ran around a building towards where they came from. Circling a corner, they ran into Barret and Xexas.

"Bit of a hard fall." Xexas said, stretching out his back.

"Lucky for the Keyblades or we would be puddles." Xedric said and Storm's Eye disappeared.

"So, what now?" Tifa asked.

"We move underground, the sewers connect with the reactor and allow a way in." Cloud said, jumping down from the top of a building behind them.

"There we go." Barret said, pointing at a large storm drain.

They piled into it and headed down a dark tunnel.

Xedric swapped Keychains on his Keyblade and held the silver and gold Keyblade high. Light emanated from it and lit up the small sewer tunnel.

"Over here." Cloud said, pointing to a grated entrance.

"I got it." Barret said.

Grasping the great with one strong hand, he pulled back. Muscles and tendons popped to the surface and his face changed colors as he strained.

The concrete cracked and crumbled around the grate.

His face was nearly purple when the grate came loose and Barret fell on his backside.

"Woo, it wasn't gonna come there for a second." Barret said, tossing the grate behind them.

They walked through the opening and came into a larger tunnel; they could actually stand up fully.

"It's the Shinra Subway system." Cloud said, looking out of the other opening.

It was still dark but Cloud led the way through the tunnel until they reached a rusting ladder.

"Wait here." Cloud said, climbing the ladder.

He poked his head out into a lighted room through the trapdoor at the top.

"It's clear, come on." Cloud waved down to him.

They climbed up into a small room that had large pipes crisscrossing to the top of it. They couldn't see the ceiling from where they were.

"Let's go, climb." Cloud said, running up the nearby pipe.

It took them less than ten minutes to climb up to scaffolding that led to the reactor's coolant system.

"Behind this door is the major coolant system for the reactor, if we blow it up, there's no going back. Without coolant, the Mako extraction systems will overheat and melt down in seconds. The heat generated should rupture Mako holding tanks, damaging the rest of the reactor beyond repair. Now ready yourselves." Barret said, pulling the backpack off his shoulders.

In the pack was a large explosive charge that could easily destroy the coolant system.

"Let's go." Cloud said, leading the way.

They ran into the room and found themselves on a T of scaffolding. To the right was a large machine with tubes to the top and bottom of the room. Dials covered the front.

"This is it." Barret said.

Cloud and Barret run for the machine and plant the explosives. The timer is set for ten minutes and the button is pressed. The explosive, an odd grey color, matched the machine and looked like another console attached to it.

"Let's go, its set." Cloud said to Xexas and Xedric. Tifa followed close behind.

They headed for the other door out of the room, it was the way Barret and Cloud had entered Reactor No. 1. They had destroyed it a week ago.

"Tsk tsk tsk, intruding again?" A voice called from in front of them.

A man in a red tuxedo came through the door in front of them, followed by six Shinra Soldiers that quickly surrounded them.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Barret said, looking at the man.

"That's President Shinra." Cloud said, holding out his sword

"You AVALANCH terrorists are really starting to get under my skin. I don't plan to let you get away again." The President said.

"We can take them." Barret said, holding up his gun arm.

"Not so, we don't plan to fight you." The President said, waving a hand.

There was a noise above them and Xedric saw something falling down. Tifa was standing in the center of the path. Barret noticed it before him though and dove at Tifa.

He grabbed her and ran out of harm's way.

A huge robot stopped a few inches from the walkway, floating on air jets.

"Meet the Air Buster. Now, take the girl and the brute, leave cloud and the fire heads to the Air Buster." The President instructed, turning around.

Two Shinra soldiers pulled out large rifles and pointed them at Barret and Tifa. They pulled the triggers and heavy chain nets enveloped Barret and Tifa. Three soldiers jumped on both of them and drug them out.

"Xedric, pay attention!" Xexas yelled, jumping in front of him. He deflected a barrage of bullets from the robots shoulder and Xedric jumped into action. He heard the door his shut behind him and a latch fall into place.

"So how do we take this accursed thing out?" Xedric yelled, leaping at it. He leapt over it, hitting its head multiple times with his Keyblade. Only a medley of sparks flashed.

"It's Shinra tech, it's bound to be tough." Cloud said, jumping forward.

His massive sword did more damage to the machine, denting its heavy armor.

The machine was a legless torso with arms covered in guns and weapons. It hovered over the T-Scaffold with large air jets beneath it. Heavy armor plates covered its chest and air jets. A large missile launcher unfolded from a shoulder. The missile fired at Xedric.

Leaping into the air, Xedric landed on the missile and shoved it down into the pit beneath them. He leapt for the wall and rebounded back onto the platform.

"We have to get past that armor!" Xexas yelled, slicing off the missile launcher from its shoulder.

"Give me a second!" Cloud yelled, jumping up above the Air Buster.

He dropped and drove his Buster Sword down through behind the machine's head. It stabbed through its armor and sank a few feet into the machine.

"Gah!" Cloud screamed as electricity surged through the sword into his arms.

He fell backward off the machine, the metal buttons and designs on his clothing were glowing orange.

Xedric noticed that its back plate of armor was pushing away from the unit. The buster sword was still jammed between the armor plates.

"Ouch, that hurt." Cloud said, rubbing his head.

Xedric looked at Xexas and his ideas seemed to pass. Xexas nodded and he jumped towards the machine while Xedric jumped in front of it and distracted it.

The machine lifted both its arms and two small sparks appeared near its wrist.

"Yikes!" Xedric said, performing a surprising back flip. He flipped over twice and landed back twenty feet just in time to see a wall of fire burst into existence where he had been standing.

It lifted its arms and pointed the flamethrower at him. Xedric jumped one way and Cloud the other. They landed on different edges around the walls of the room.

Xedric looked down in time to see Xexas grasp the handle of the Buster Sword and plant his feet against the machine's shoulders. He pulled outward and leapt off the machine. The armor pulled off and fell against the scaffolding with a loud clang. Landing on the scaffolding, Xexas turned, still holding the Buster Sword in one hand and his Keyblade in the other.

In the center of the Air Buster was a clear capsule that held a large crystalline heart. Glowing lines seeped from the heart into the two electrodes in the capsule.

"It's a heartless!" Xedric yelled at Xexas.

A glow grew from the Keyblade and he leapt over the Air Buster and swung both the blades downward. The Keyblade and The Buster Blade cut through the shoulder pieces of the machine.

He landed on the other side and the Air Buster's arms fell off. Turning, Xexas put the Keyblade and The Buster Blade together and grasped both handles together. The blades glowed together and he sliced a multitude of times.

All at once, glowing yellow lines appeared in its chest and the Air Buster exploded. It destroyed the scaffolding and Xexas fell. A shockwave slammed into the walls around the room. Cloud and Xedric were slammed against the wall and fell into the abyss below.

"Oh…" Xedric moaned; his head ached horribly.

He opens his eyes and looked around. Deric almost jumped, the ground was twenty feet below him. He was lying across a crossbar in the rafters of some building. Beneath him, Cloud was lying in a small circle of flowers growing out of a hole in the floor.

Xexas was sprawled across a pew below.

"A church?" Xedric said, looking at the line of pews.

He suddenly heard a humming from below. A girl was kneeling near cloud, picking flowers.

Xedric summoned the Keyblade and climbed up onto the thick scaffolding. Bracing himself, he leapt to the ground below and rolled as he hit the ground.

"Eeek.": The girl shrieked.

"Wait…Aeris?" Xedric said, turning around.

"Xedric! Why are you all here? Barret and Tifa got home about an hour ago." Aeris said.

"How?" Xedric asked, stretching his arms.

"Well when the soldiers drug them out, apparently Barret shot them and they ran for the bar.

"We had a hell of a fight with a Shinra Heartless. It knocked us out of the reactor and we ended up here." Xedric said, walking over to his brother.

He shook Xexas and hefted him to his feet. Xexas blinked and looked around.

"Dang…where'd we end up?" He said, holding his chest. Xedric could imagine the bruise that was there after falling down on that pew, he could feel a bruise like that across his ribcage.

"A church, down in the slums." Xedric said, helping him stand for a moment.

"We fell all the way from the upper plate?" Xexas said, looking up at the three holes in the roof.

The vent they had fallen out of was indiscernible from the rest of the grey plate.

"Apparently." Aeris said, shaking Cloud awake.

"We aren't disturbing your sleep are we?" A voice came from the entrance.

"Because, you know, we could come back another time." A more joking voice said.

They all turned to the doors and saw a few large men standing there. The two in the front were nice suited, one with red hair and pale skin, the other with dark hair and dark skin. Behind them, six soldiers in battle fatigues held guns at the ready.

"Come on Cloud." Xedric said, pulling on one of his arms. Xexas pulled on his other and they got him on his feet.

Cloud mumbled something and woke up. He looked back and forth between Xedric and Xexas holding him.

"We got trouble, we have to leave Cloud." Xedric said, pointing at the men at the door.

"Get 'em boys." The red haired man said, pointing at them.

"Turks, we've got to go." Cloud said, grabbing his sword off the ground.

"This way." Aeris said, pointing to a broken beam in the back of the church that lead up to the ceiling.

They ran for it, Cloud stumbling a bit, and hurried up the beam.

The Turks were in full pursuit behind them, already at the bottom of the beam.

"Quick, out the hole over there." Cloud said, pointing to a hole in the roof. There was another building nearby.

They ran for it, balancing carefully on the foot wide beams. The Turks were closing behind them.

Aeris was the last one out the church and onto the building roof. Cloud led the way, sprinting across the roofs. They jumped down off the other side just as the Turks got to the hole.

"No telling where they went now, probably back to that little shit hole in sector seven." The red haired Turk cursed.

"Tell Shinra we didn't get them and to drop _it_." The black Turk said into a radio.

They all stood in front of a house that seemed horribly out of place here. It was a bright pink two story with a gorgeous garden around it. Light shone down from a crack or a hole in the plate above them.

"This is me and my mother's home." Aeris said, leading through the garden, "Thank you for helping us so much Xedric, Xexas."

"We've no one else to go to." Xedric said, nodding.

"Plus, you needed the help." Xexas smiled.

Aeris stepped through the door and Xedric was about to when something distracted him. There was a bright glowing from Xedric's coat pocket, so bright that it pierced through his clothing.

"What's that?" Xexas asked, pointing at his jacket.

Xedric fished in his pocket and pulled out a green orb, the Materia Tifa had given him. He still hadn't used it.

"It's a heal material. I can't say I've ever seen them glow before." Cloud said, seeing him hold it up.

It plucked itself from his hand and began to float away. It stopped about ten feet above them. A long beam of light shot up from it and suddenly they were standing in a world of lights. The beam of light collided with a large glowing keyhole above them.

His Keyblade appeared suddenly in his hand and Xedric looked down at it. A bright glowing was emanating from the tip. He felt as if he needed to do something here.

Holding up the Keyblade, Xedric watched as a glowing beam appeared around the Keyblade and then shot towards the keyhole. It entered the giant keyhole and a loud click was heard. The glowing lights snapped suddenly and they were standing back at Aeris' house.

"What the hell was that?" Xexas asked, bewildered.

"Come on boys, stop holding us up!" Aeris called from the house.

There was a sudden woosh of air as they neared the house. A large black portal appeared in front of them and two figures stepped out of it. One of them was a tall black robed figure and the other was a shorter black robed figure with large round ears.

"You!" Xexas cried, leaping after the taller man. He was the man in black, the one that destroyed their world.

The man in black held up his kinds and a strange blade materialized there. It was like a dark bat wing, it stopped Xexas' swing completely.

"Give me back Alissa!" Xedric yelled, leaping at the shorter man.

Xedric's Keyblade flashed in his hands and he swung as hard as he could at the small figure. It swung at Xedric, empty handed and at the last second, a golden Keyblade appeared and blocked him.

"A…A Keyblade?" Xedric said, stepping back.

"We aren't who you think we are." The shorter man said, pushing him back with ease, "We aren't with the man who destroyed your town."

There was something in his voice, something he had heard elsewhere. He had a high pitched, unique voice.

"We may walk in darkness but we are light." The Short man said again.

He suddenly recognized him, "The darkness doesn't suit you Xedric, stay in the light." He remembered his warning when Xedric had tried to chase the man in black into the darkness.

"Xexas, off him, they are not our foes." Xedric said, watching Xexas and the larger man struggle back and forth.

"They aren't?" He said, stepping back.

"No, but I do want an explanation of who you are." Xedric said, pointing at the shorter man.

He reached up and extricated his hood off his large ears. The man was actually, a mouse.

"I am Mickey, Keyblade master!" Mickey said, holding out a small hand.

"Xedric." He said, shaking his small hand.

"Xexas." Xexas said, shaking his hand as well.

"Who's the big guy?" Cloud asked, putting a hand on his sword.

"He's…" Mickey said, looking up at the man, his hood obscured his face, but he gave a slight nod, "…Ansem, a friend of mine."

Ansem showed no signs of friendliness or inclination to even talk to the young brothers.

"He's a quiet one, anyway, back to why I came here. Your work in this world is done Xedric, we must leave."

"What do you mean?" Xedric asked.

"You've locked the world's heart behind a keyhole and it's now safe from the Heartless. We've got other worlds to save now." Mickey said, nodding towards the black portal.

Xedric looked over at Xexas for help. Xexas shrugged.

"Hurry up." Ansem suddenly said. His voice was deep and dark, it shook them.

"This is the only way you can get Alissa back." Mickey said, stepping into the black portal.

Ansem followed him, but the portal stayed open.

"Well, I suppose this is goodbye." Xedric said, turning to Cloud.

"It's been fun!" Xexas said happily.

"I hope you two get back to your world one day." Cloud said as they turned to the dark portal.

The two brothers stepped into the black portal and disappeared from the city of Midgar.


End file.
